Last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan sat down with NPR to discuss, among other things, poverty. As the highest ranking member of the House, Ryan has a crucial opportunity to change the way the government addresses poverty. In his plans to confront this issue, Ryan munity efforts and local solutions central. During the last four years, Ryan made visits to several poverty-stricken areas munity organizer Bob Woodson in order to better understand the challenges these munities face. Through these visits,...

This week at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics, contributor James Clark asked, “Can microfinance really help the poor?” His conclusion: yes microfinance can work, but with certain caveats. In the last decade, microfinance has e a popular strategy in poverty alleviation, yet many economists and philanthropists often call its effectiveness into question. In his article Clark says that “Christians have embraced microfinance as a solution to poverty that helps the poor help themselves, but we must ensure that...

How do we live in a fallen world under Christ the King? In partnership with the Acton Institute, Lexham Press has now released Pro Rege: Living Under Christ the King, Volume 1, the first in a three-volume series on the lordship of Christ. Originally written as a series ofarticles for readers of De Herault (The Herald), the work was designedfor “the rank and file of the munity in the Netherlands,” not academic theologians, offering a uniquely accessible view into Kuyper’s...

As church attendance continues to decline across the West, many have lamented the spiritual and social side effects, namely a weakening of civil society and the fabric munity life. What’s less discussed, however, is the economic impact of such a decline. In a new study published by Cardus, Dr. Michael Wood Daly of the University of Toronto explores this very thing, researching the “economic value” of ten Toronto congregations, and finding “a cumulative estimated economic impact of approximately $45 million,”...

What is the biggest economic problem that the U.S. is currently facing? Depends who you ask. Some social justice warriors would tell you that capitalism is ruining our economy, yet many who have studied and understand economics would argue the opposite. Capitalism is not to blame, but rather cronyism and protectionist policies are the ones wreaking havoc on the economy. In a previous post, I discussed how occupational licensing as a form of cronyism is trapping people in poverty. However,...

Note: This second article in a two-part series on the Republican Party Platform. Part I can be found here. In the previous articlewe looked atsummary outline of the Republican platform as it relates to several non-economic issues covered by the Acton Institute. Today, we’ll look at the GOP’s economic agenda as laid out in the platform. Because the document is long (66 pages) and covers an extensive variety of economic-related areas (agriculture, energy) this list won’t be exhaustive. But it...

During the recent Republican National Convention the GOP delegates voted to adopt their party’s platform,a document that outlines the statement of principles and policies that the party has decided it will support. Although the document is not binding on the presidential nominee or any other politicians,political scientists have foundthat over the past 30 years lawmakers in Congress tend to vote in line with their party’s platform: 89 percent of the time for Republicans and 79 percent of the time for...

On Tuesday, President Obama declared this week Captive Nations Week. The first Captive Nations Week was in 1959, proclaimed by President Eisenhower to call attention to the oppression of several countries in the Soviet Bloc and to encourage Americans to support fight for democracy and liberty worldwide. Enjoy the six quotes below as we observe a week dedicated to the beauty of freedom and decrying the continued existence of tyranny: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or...

A solid case could be made that the most powerful natural law in the universe is the “law of unintended consequences.” It’s definitely the dominant force when es to public policy. For example, in 2007 Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was designed to encourage young workers to seek government and nonprofit jobs that pay far less than what they’d get in the private sector. The program forgives the remaining balance on direct loans after a borrower...

People have strong opinions on a variety of subjects in which they don’t have an advanced degree or training. Yet when es to economics many people defer to “experts.” But asHa-Joon Chang, a South Korean economist who specializes in development, says, “Economics is for everyone.” Chang argues that we shouldn’t rely on experts to tell us what is true about economics (because they probably don’t know) but instead rely on our monsense to help us make sense of plicated world....